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Research areas,
fields of activity
Political
institutions and institution building, electoral systems,
direct democracy, federalism, decentralisation and governance,
electoral and voting behaviour, political participation, Swiss
politics.
Employment history
2008
- Project
Director Swiss Electoral Studies "Selects", Centre for Social
Science Research (FORS), Lausanne.
2003
- 2007 Senior Lecturer
("Oberassistent"), Institute for Political Science, University
of Bern.
2003
(summer) Visiting scholar, Centre for
Advancement of Women in Politics, Queens
University, Belfast (Northern Ireland).
2002
-2003 Visiting scholar,
Trinity College, Dublin, full
academic year.
1999
-2003 Assistant at the
Institute for Political Science, University of Bern,
Switzerland. Research project financed by
the Swiss National Science Foundation. "Swiss Electoral
Studies (Selects 99)" (joint project of the universities of
Bern, Geneva and Zurich), from 2000 also assistant to Prof.
Dr. Wolf Linder.
1995-1999 Staff
member, Institute for Political Science, University of Bern.
Position financed by the Federal Office for
Statistics.
Education /
Training
Education
2000
-2004 PhD (Dr. rer.
soc.). Institute for
Political Science, University of Bern with “summa cum laude".
Title: "Participation, Information and Democracy". Supervisors
and examiners: Prof. Dr. Wolf Linder, University of Bern,
Prof. Dr. Michael Marsh, Trinity College Dublin.
1994-2000 Master's
Degree (lic. rer. soc.) in political science and history,
Universities of Bern and Geneva.
1990-1993 Federal
high school exam (Matura).
1987-1990 Professional
training as a chef, Restaurant Casino, Bern.
1977-1987 Primary
and secondary school, Bern.
Other
trainings
2009 Course
on "Multi-level modelling", Vienna.
2001 Summer
School on Advanced Methods in Social Sciences in Lugano:
"Survey Research Methods".
2001 Courses
"University Teaching" and "Rhetoric”, University of
Bern.
1996 ECPR
Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis &
Collection, University of Essex: Courses on multivariate
analysis, advanced regression models and multi-level
analysis.
Teaching
experience
2008/2009 Lecture:
"Parties and Ideologies".
2007 Research
seminar: "Elections and voting behaviour".
2006 Research
seminar: "Political Institutions, Institution Building and
Governance".
2005/2006 Lecture
"Introduction to political science" (with Wolf Linder and
André Bächtiger).
2005 Lecture:
"The Swiss political system".
2004-2007 In
charge of the institute and doctoral seminar series at the
Institute of Political Science at the University of
Bern.
2004/05 Course
(Seminar): "Political Behaviour".
2004
Course (Seminar): "Direct Democracy".
2001/2002 Courses
(Seminar): "Election and Electoral Systems".
Supervision of
various Master’s and seminar theses at the Institute of
Political Science, University of Bern.
Grants and Awards
Since
2008 Main Investigator
"Swiss Electoral Studies - Selects", funded by the Swiss
National Science Foundation.
2008 Three
years research grant by the European Science Foundation
(together with Sylvia Kritzinger, University of Vienna, Thomas
Bräuninger, Universtiy of Konstanz and Gail McElrory). "Representation
in Europe: Policy Congruence between Citizens and
Elites".
2005 Two-year
full time research grant from the Hans Sigrist Foundation,
University of Bern.
2003 Stein
Rokkan Award. International Political Science Association,
(IPSA) 2003.
2003 Runner-up
for the ECPR Rudolf Wilderman Price (best paper from a young
scholar at the ECPR 2002 conference).
2002/2003 Visiting
scholar grant, awarded by the Government of Ireland.
2001-2003 Three-year
doctoral scholarship from the Swiss National Science
Foundation.
Other professional
activities
Regular
media appearance in connection with national and local
elections and votes, electoral systems, and political
participation in Switzerland in electronic and print
media.
Board
member of medienhilfe (Swiss-based NGO supporting independent
media and professional journalis, until 2009).
Professional
memberships: Swiss Political Science Association, American
Political Science Association, Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer
Wahlforschung.
Member
of the Editorial Board of European Political Science.
Referee
Journal of Politics, Political Studies, European Journal of
Political Science, Swiss Journal of Political Science,
Electoral Studies, Swiss National Science Foundation, European
Science Foundation.
Conference
attendance (with paper presentation)
2009
Inivited paper presentation "Campaigning in open list PR
elections", presented at the conference on "Candidates in
Constituency Campaigns from a Comparative Perspective",
organized by Thomas Zittel, Cornell University, USA (with
Peter Selb).
2009 Invited
paper presentation "The Swiss open ballot PR system: its
origin and its effect on strategic behaviour of parties and
candidates campaigning in open list PR elections", presented
at the workshop on «Personal vs. Party Representation»,
organized by Josep M. Colomer, University of Barcelona,
Spain.
2009
"5th International Conference of Panel Data Users in
Switzerland", 4/5 June 2009, University of Lausanne (paper
with Oliver Lipps).
2008
Co-director workshop "Weniger Demokratie wagen?" and paper
presentation at the "Drei-Ländertagung" in Osnabrück (togther
with Achim Schäfer and Thomas Zittel).
2003/2004/2005/2007/2008
APSA Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington DC,
Chicago and Boston.
1998/2001/2003/2005 ECPR
Joint Sessions, Warwick (UK), Torino (Italy), Edinburgh (UK),
Granada (Spain).
2004
ECPR workshop co-director "Low turnout – does it matter?".
Uppsala, Sweden (with Prof. Michael Marsh).
2003
IPSA, Durban (South Africa).
2001/2003/2007/2009
ECPR General conferences, in Canterbury
(UK), Marburg (Germany), Pisa (Italy), Potsdam
(Germany).
1999/2000/2007/2009/2010
Swiss Political Science Association Annual
Conference, Balsthal, Fribourg, St. Gallen, Geneva.
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